Jacksonville’s coaching search finally came to an end on Thursday night as the team announced the hiring of former Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pederson, who won Super Bowl LII.
But even with a hire in place, it’s hard to ignore the disastrous process. Much of the blame for that is placed on general manager Trent Baalke, who has become a popular punching bag around the league.
Hall of Fame receiver Cris Carter got in on the action, saying that Urban Meyer approached him before the start of the 2021 season asking him to be a part of his support staff.
“Urban Meyer coached me at Ohio State,” Carter said. “1986. He was my wide receiver coach. So last year he gets the Jacksonville job. Me and Urban have extensive conversations. We have a conversation about me joining his support staff.”
Carter said he spoke to a friend in a similar role with the Detroit Lions to come up with a plan for the job to present with Meyer. The coach liked the plan and wanted Carter to come to Jacksonville to meet with Baalke. But things quickly changed.
“Urban called me back two days later and said ‘Trent Baalke killed it. He didn’t see the skillset, he didn’t see the value that you bring to the organization,’” Carter said. “I said, ‘Well, Urban, I don’t know what you and Trent Baalke have been doing since 1987, but for the last five decades, I’ve been associated with the National Football League…’ I said ‘Urban I can be your eyes and your ears.’”
According to Carter, his hiring would have prevented one of the early signs of collapse from the Meyer regime. After a loss to the Bengals on Thursday night in Week 4, Meyer stayed in Ohio instead of flying back with the team and was caught on video inappropriately touching an unknown woman at a bar.
“One example, there’s no way we lose to Cincinnati and Urban Meyer is not on that plane going back to Jacksonville,” Carter said. “One thing right there, Cris Carter would have been like ‘We’re going back to Jacksonville, we’ll get on the (private jet) Friday morning and then go back up to Ohio, which we’re both from.’”
It’s hard to say in hindsight whether Carter would have been enough to prevent that outcome, but it’s fair to say the presence of someone who understands how you have to carry yourself to make it in the league could have made an impact on Meyer’s decision-making.
Regardless, it didn’t happen, and if what Carter says is true, the Jags may have Baalke at least partially to thank for that — especially considering Baalke reportedly gave Meyer the OK to not fly back with the team.